Property Maintenance in Wollongong and the Illawarra for Strata, Agents and Landlords
Handy Tradie 4 U provides property maintenance in Wollongong and across the Illawarra for strata managers, real estate agencies, property managers and landlords. One trade contact for handyman work, carpentry, welding and metal repairs, with photo reports on every job and invoices to whoever is paying rather than to the tenant. 24 areas, Helensburgh to Nowra. To go on your panel, call 0413 147 335 or email info@handytradie4u.com.
One trade contact for your whole portfolio
Licensed and insured
ABN 91 639 254 685
Insured on every job, certificates of currency on request
ServiceM8 job management, photo reports as standard
24 areas, Helensburgh to Nowra
Who we work for
Property maintenance is a different job from a homeowner call-out. The person booking is not the person using the building, the person paying is often someone else, and what gets you re-booked is paperwork rather than charm.
Strata managers and owners corporations
Common property repairs, scheduled maintenance, and the small reactive jobs that clog a strata manager's week: gates that will not latch, rusted balustrades, broken letterboxes, failing handrails, damaged common area doors, pressure washing, fence repairs. Attendance reports with photos come back with the invoice, so you have something to put in front of the committee. Where a repair needs a by-law check or committee approval, we flag it and wait rather than doing the work and arguing later.
Real estate agencies and property managers
Work orders turned around without three phone calls. We take the order, contact the tenant if you want us to, attend, photograph, complete and invoice the agency. If the job is bigger than the order allows, you get photos and a quote before anything is spent. Routine inspection repair lists are our favourite job: eight small items at one property is one visit, not eight, and most of that list is ordinary handyman work.
Landlords and self-managing owners
Own one or two properties and manage them yourself? Same arrangement without the agency in the middle: tenant contacted and scheduled, work done, photos sent, invoice to you. Useful when you do not live nearby.
Commercial and small business sites
Shopfronts, offices, cafes and light industrial. Door and lock repairs, shelving and fit-out carpentry, signage fixing, handrail and gate repairs, welding on site. Scheduled outside trading hours where we can, because a closed shop costs more than the repair.
What property maintenance covers
The work splits into four buckets: what breaks and has to be fixed now, what is better done on a schedule, what sits on common property, and what has to be cleared between tenants.
Reactive repairs and work orders
The daily list. Doors that will not close or lock. Taps and washers. Loose tiles and failed grout. Wall and ceiling patching. Flyscreen and security screen repairs. Smoke alarms. Cupboard doors, hinges and runners. Shower screen rollers. Blinds and tracks. Fence palings and gates. Gutters and downpipes. Letterboxes. Clotheslines.
Planned and preventative maintenance
Jobs done on a schedule so they stop becoming emergencies. Gutter cleaning before storm season, which on the escarpment side is not optional. Timber and paint checks on exposed elevations. Gate, hinge and latch servicing. Handrail and balustrade checks on coastal buildings, where salt does damage you cannot see from the ground. Tap rounds. Deck and screen checks. We quote a cycle per building and attend on a set rotation.
Common property repairs
Entry and common area doors and closers. Letterbox banks. Gates, handrails and balustrades, and pool fencing hardware. Fences, gates and gate hardware. Bin bay doors and enclosures. Common area tiling and grout. Carpentry repairs to common property timber. Pressure washing of paths, stairs and bin areas.
Pool barriers are their own standard, AS 1926.1-2012: minimum height 1200mm, or 1800mm where the barrier is also a boundary fence, a bottom gap to finished ground of 100mm at most, a non-climbable zone of 900mm, and a latch at 1500mm from the ground, or 1200mm if it is on the inside with the release 150mm below the top of the gate. We repair hardware to suit those requirements rather than just rehanging what was there.
Vacancy, make-good and end-of-lease repairs
The window between tenants is short and the list is always the same: patch and touch up, rehang doors, replace damaged hardware, refit cupboard doors, sort flyscreens, re-fix loose fittings, replace broken tiles. One visit, priced as one job, with a photo report you can use for the bond or the incoming condition report.
Welding and metalwork on common property
Other maintenance contractors subcontract this. It is our main trade. Rusted gate hinges and frames, cracked balustrades and handrails, broken bin bay and plant room gates, damaged steel stair stringers, security grilles, bollards, all covered under welding and metal fabrication and rust and weld repairs.
Mobile welding means the repair happens on site, instead of the item being carted away and returned a fortnight later while a gate sits open. On coastal buildings we also keep metals apart where they should not touch, because aluminium does not rust but it does pit in salt air and suffers galvanic attack where it meets stainless or steel fixings.
How we handle work orders, photos and invoicing
This is the part that decides whether a contractor is easy to keep on a panel: what comes back with the job, who the invoice goes to, and whether the history is there next time.
Photo reports on every job, before and after
Every job is photographed before and after, and the photos come with the invoice rather than on request, so you can forward them straight to an owner, a committee or a tenant without writing an explanation. Where no work was possible, you get photos of why.
Invoicing to the agent or strata manager
Invoices go to the account that engaged us, carrying your work order reference, the property address, the scope as completed and the photos. Not to the tenant, and not to the owner unless you say so. Payment terms are agreed with you at account setup and set against the account from then on.
Tenant access and entry notice
We contact the tenant and arrange access directly, or work only through you. Your call, set once at account setup. Entry to a tenanted property in NSW requires the correct notice under the Residential Tenancies Act and we will not attend without it, because an attendance refused at the door is a wasted fee for your owner. We turn up in the window given, and if we are late the tenant hears it from us.
Job updates through ServiceM8
Our jobs run in ServiceM8, so status, times on site, notes and photos are recorded against the property rather than living in someone's text messages. You can be sent automated job updates and completion notifications, and the history is there next time something fails in the same spot. Recurring maintenance is scheduled as a repeating job, so it does not depend on anyone remembering.
Spend limits, quotes and approvals
How we work with a maintenance budget:
We do not publish price lists or hourly rates for any of this. Each attendance is quoted against the job in front of us, taking in access, materials and the condition of what is being repaired, and you get a firm figure before work starts.
Where a job is residential building work, the NSW thresholds decide the paperwork. A contract price over $5,000 including GST requires a written contract. Work worth $5,000 to $20,000 can run under a small works contract, and work worth more than $20,000 requires a full home building contract, which also needs home building compensation cover and the insurance certificate that goes with it. The maximum deposit that may be requested is 10 per cent, on a small job or a large one, and variations are agreed in writing before the varied work happens.
Under your work order limit:
we attend, complete, photograph and invoice. No back and forth.
Over the limit, or scope found on site:
we stop, photograph, and send a quote before anything is spent. You will never get an invoice for something you did not approve.
Needs committee or by-law approval:
we flag it, quote it, and wait for the approval.
After hours and urgent:
we take urgent work where we can get to it, and the attendance is quoted and approved the same way as anything else. We do not publish rates, so you get a figure for the specific job before we roll.
Insurance, reporting and how we work with your trades
Insured on every job, with a certificate of currency available at account setup for your records. ABN 91 639 254 685.
Every work order is logged in ServiceM8 with photographs before, during and after, so an owner who lives interstate sees exactly what was done and the invoice lines up with the images. Tenant access is arranged directly by phone or SMS once the order is assigned, and entry follows the notice periods under the Residential Tenancies Act.
Electrical, plumbing and gas work is carried out by the specialist trades we work with regularly, and the compliance certificate comes from the tradesperson who did it.
The areas we cover
Helensburgh, Thirroul, Woonona, Bulli, Corrimal, North Wollongong, Fairy Meadow, Figtree, Unanderra, Port Kembla, Dapto, Horsley, Albion Park, Warilla, Oak Flats, Shellharbour, Shell Cove, Minnamurra, Kiama, Jamberoo, Gerringong, Berry and Nowra.
Wollongong based, so most of the Wollongong local government area is a short run. Attendance timeframes for standard and urgent work are agreed with you at account setup and recorded against the account, and you can see all our Illawarra and South Coast service areas before you set one up.
Set up a maintenance account
Send us your work order process, your spend limit and your invoicing details and we will set the account up. One contact for handyman, carpentry and welding work across your whole portfolio.
Call 0413 147 335 or email info@handytradie4u.com. Licensed and insured, ABN 91 639 254 685, Wollongong NSW 2500.
Recent Work
Repairs and replacements from scheduled maintenance rounds
Want a firm price on this?
Send a photo and a short description. You get a straight answer on what it needs and what it costs before anything starts.
Property Maintenance Questions
Do you invoice the agency or the tenant?+
The account that engaged us, with your work order reference on the invoice. Never the tenant unless you instruct it. The invoice carries the property address, the scope as completed and the job photos.
Do you send photos with completed jobs?+
Yes, before and after photos on every job, attached to the invoice as standard. You can forward them straight to the owner or committee without writing a summary.
Will you contact the tenant to arrange access?+
Yes, if you want us to. Set it once at account setup and we either deal with the tenant directly or work only through your office. Entry still needs the correct notice under the Residential Tenancies Act, and we will not attend without it.
How do you price maintenance work and what is the spend limit before you need approval?+
We work to whatever limit you set on the account. Below it we complete and invoice. Above it, or where we find extra scope on site, you get photos and a quote before anything is spent. We do not publish rates or price lists: each attendance is quoted against the job, taking in access, materials and condition, and you get a firm figure before work starts.
Can you take on scheduled maintenance for a building?+
Yes. We quote a cycle per building, covering gutters, gates, handrails, timber and tap rounds, and schedule it as a recurring job in ServiceM8 so it happens without anyone chasing it.
Are you insured, and can we have the certificate?+
Licensed and insured, ABN 91 639 254 685, insured on every job, with a certificate of currency provided at account setup for your panel records.
Do you do electrical and plumbing work?+
Those jobs go to the specialist trades we work with regularly, and the compliance certificate comes from the tradesperson who did the work.
When does a job need a written contract or home building compensation cover?+
The contract price decides. Residential building work over $5,000 including GST needs a written contract. Work worth $5,000 to $20,000 can be done under a small works contract, and work worth more than $20,000 needs a full home building contract with home building compensation cover and the insurance certificate that goes with it. The maximum deposit that may be requested is 10 per cent, and variations are agreed in writing before the varied work happens. We are licensed and insured, ABN 91 639 254 685.
Do you handle end-of-lease and make-good repairs?+
Yes, as one visit priced as one job. The photo report gives you evidence for the bond claim or the incoming condition report.
“Finally found someone who actually turned up when he said he would!”
“Cheerful, quick, and didn't try to upsell me on things I didn't need. Rare these days.”
“Turned a weekend-long headache into a one-visit fix. Absolute legend.”